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8 major stocks get pounded yet again

Just when you though the stock market's pain couldn't get worse - investors are finding out stocks just want to keep falling. Not only did the entire market's early-day rebound vanish and take the market down

Just when you though the stock market's pain couldn't get worse - investors are finding out stocks just want to keep falling.

Not only did the entire market's early-day rebound vanish and take the market down another 1.3% and deeper into correction, but eight stocks in the Standard & Poor's 500, including utility Pepco (POM), energy firm Chesapeake Energy (CHK) and drugmaker Merck (MRK) got pounded again. Each of these stocks dropped by 4% or more - just on Tuesday. Seeing such big drops - on a day investors largely expected a bounceback - is the freshest insult to investors who bought the market's pain was ending.

These stocks are the most extreme examples of a market that can't seem to find a bottom. The broad S&P 500 attempted a recovery rally Tuesday and gained as much as 2.9% during the day - only to wind up sinking another 1.4%. The market is now down 11.6% from its high on May 21.

The day's hardest hit stock is also the most unnerving. Shares of Washington D.C.-based utility Pepco Holdings dropped $4.44, or 16.5%, to $22.51 after regulators rejected its $6.8 billion buyout by rival Exelon. The massive drop is tied to news, but it's still unnerving since utilities have been just about the only safe place to reduce the pain from past corrections. The day's crash in Pepco shares parks the utility down 16.5% from the day the market peaked.

Energy stocks continue to get slammed. Chesapeake Energy, a natural gas and oil exploration company, saw its shares drop 58 cents, or 9%, to take the stock down to $6.03 a share. Shares have been absolutely ravaged since the market's peak in May, losing nearly two-thirds of is value in that period of time. The Energy Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund, which tracks energy stocks, dropped 0.3% Tuesday.

One member of the Dow Jones industrial average, drugmaker Merck, was among this group of slapped down stocks. Shares of the company fell another $2.88, or 5.3%, to $51.11. The stock is squarely in correction territory - having fallen 15% from the market's top.

Investors hoping for a big rebound didn't get it. And instead, there are more reasons to worry about how bad this market can get.